Grenfell Tower and the Law of the High Rise

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The Grenfell Tower fire killed over 80 people, and has devastated many more lives. The disaster has provoked a national discussion over housing conditions and questions over the role of the State, as well as a debate over the relationship of the fire with politics, race, class and policies of austerity. Meanwhile the legal, social and physical impact of the fire continues to play out, for both those immediately affected, and those living in high rise homes across the rest of the UK.  

 

This current topic invites papers which examine the fire at Grenfell Tower, and the wider context of high rise housing. Papers might focus on legal aspects of the fire, the building or the aftermath, including the ongoing judicial inquiry, criminal offences and possible public and civil actions. They could also engage with a historical or contemporary approach to the regulation of high rise life, exploring broader questions including the role played by utopian and dystopian imaginaries of the high rise, and legal, architectural, political, or cultural aspects of high rise living. 

 

A broad approach is welcomed, and socio-legal and interdisciplinary perspectives are encouraged. Possible further themes for discussion could include for the particularities of law in high rise living, the construction of community, the place of resistance, the investigation of contentious deaths and possibilities of accountability, justice and truth, the role of science and technology, the impact of technicality, or critical engagements with modernity, post-modernity and high rise life.

 

Convenors

Helen Carr; Dave Cowan; Ed Kirton-Darling (ek276@kent.ac.uk); Edward Burtonshaw-Gunn (e.burtonshaw-gunn@bristol.ac.uk).